Stocks reclaim a quick 100 at open

Associated Press

Wall Street shot higher in early trading Monday, with solid preliminary results from IBM encouraging investors to buy back into the stock market after last week's rout.

International Business Machines Corp., one of the 30 Dow Jones industrials, released preliminary earnings estimates for the fourth quarter that were 24 percent above year-earlier levels and that also beat the forecast of analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial.

But the badly beaten financial sector could be in for more pain, after reports over the past week that Citigroup Inc. may have to take a larger-than-feared writedown; the bank's earnings report is due Tuesday.

Elsewhere in the sector, Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc. is seeking $4 billion, in a second capital raising to stanch the losses on its balance sheet, according to the Financial Times. The Kuwait Investment Authority could invest as much as $3 billion in the deal, which could be announced by the middle of the week.

In the first hour of trading, the Dow gained 144.86, or 1.15 percent, to 12,751.16.